into News & Prophecy

Their Blood Cries Out: The Discussion We Really Need to Be Having About Planned Parenthood

The CMP’s recent Planned Parenthood videos have sparked a firestorm of debate—but it’s a debate that largely ignores the most important issue of all.

We’ve been having the wrong debate.

Since July 14, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has been posting video after video of high-level Planned Parenthood officials discussing the transactional value of fetal body parts. News outlets and the Internet in general have erupted in heated debates, which mostly seem to be centered on the legality of these transactions or whether these videos have been deceptively edited.

That’s the wrong debate. That debate is miles away from the discussion we really need to be having—and yes, there is absolutely a discussion we need to be having.

Personally, I don’t care so much about whether Planned Parenthood isn’t jumping through the right legal hoops for the things they’re doing behind closed doors. And I don’t care so much whether the CMP has cut and spliced their video footage in an unfair way (even though they’ve released the full and unedited versions of each video).

What I care about are the dishes. In at least two of the videos, we’re given an uncomfortably close view of glass dishes filled with bits and pieces of aborted fetuses. What I care about is how a rational human being can look at dishes filled with the dismembered remains of a human being and still have the audacity to call a fetus nothing more than a clump of cells or a blob of tissue.

The real issue

Because that’s the crux of this whole thing, isn’t it? Are fetuses human beings, or are they not? According to most pro-choice advocates, a fetus cannot be considered a human being because it can’t survive outside the womb. It’s just a nonviable blob of tissue.

Oh?

Biologically, we’re all just clumps of cells and blobs of tissue—and under certain conditions, we’re all nonviable. If I ripped you away from your food sources and thrust you into a totally inhospitable environment (say, the surface of Mars), you wouldn’t be too viable either. But would that make you any less human?

But that isn’t what I want to be focusing on right now—because, as I watched these videos, I didn’t see featureless blobs of tissue. My stomach churned as technicians rooted through piles of livers and kidneys and eyes on behalf of prospective clients. My fists clenched as one employee hunted for a pair of legs while his coworker exclaimed, “And another boy!”

And my heart sunk as a pair of tweezers picked up a perfectly formed arm, complete with perfect little fingers. It may as well have been waving to the camera—that is, if it weren’t for the technician who had ripped it off the shoulder of the fetus it belonged to.

Blobs of tissue, indeed.

If the blood of one man was enough to symbolically cry out to God for justice, how much louder is the blood of more than a billion unborn children?We have shed innocent blood

After the very first murder, God asked Cain, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10, emphasis added). If the blood of one man was enough to symbolically cry out to God for justice, how much louder is the blood of more than a billion unborn children?

Don’t think for a second that God isn’t listening. Don’t think for a second that He doesn’t hate the way the human race has opted to sacrifice its own offspring at the altar of convenience.

In a list of seven things God hates and calls abominations, No. 3 is “hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17). Tell me, is there any blood being shed today more innocent than the blood of unborn children? Other items on God’s list of abominations include “a heart that devises wicked plans” and “feet that are swift in running to evil” (Proverbs 6:18). If that’s not an apt description of abortion clinics around the world, I don’t know what is.

What kills me is that none of this information is new. For years, anyone willing to look could easily uncover the truth about abortion. Today, though, we don’t even need to look. It’s right in front of us. These videos are being shared on social networks, blogs and news outlets, and remaining ignorant of the truth is nearly impossible.

It’s going to take a lot more than just not looking. Remaining blissfully unaware of this great evil means taking one of two routes: Either we can plug our ears and scream to drown out the evidence—or we can give in to self-deception, calling this atrocity a good and wholesome thing. The only other alternative is admitting our guilt—admitting that, through abortion, we’ve slaughtered millions of innocent lives and turned a genocide into a sound business practice.

This is beyond flawed logic. This is psychosis. We’ve had a collective mental break with reality, and the consequences are looming on the horizon: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). We’re on a collision course with the apocalypse, and we’re patting ourselves on the back all the way there.

What we need to do now

There is a solution, but it’s not an easy one. We need to heed the words of the apostle James: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:8-10).

Abortion is far from our planet’s only sin, but if we were brave enough to acknowledge those sins and cry out for forgiveness, to repent and put a stop to our wickedness, this could all end differently. After all, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But “if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:9-10).

In the book of Psalms, we read about wicked men who believe God “will not require an account” for their actions (Psalm 10:13)—but they couldn’t be more wrong. Speaking to God, the author writes, “You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless” (verse 14).

The Word of God is clear: Judgment is coming, and there will be a reckoning for every innocent life ripped to shreds in these human slaughterhouses. God is watching, and He will require an account.

The Planned Parenthood controversy is already being buried under a flood of new stories for the public to be incensed about. And then we’ll be angry about those for a couple weeks until the next flood of stories, and then the next and the next …

But right now, before this debate completely fades from our collective consciousness and absolutely nothing changes, it’s important for us to understand that something within our culture is deeply, fundamentally broken, and we can’t continue like this much longer.

The blood of the innocent cries out to God above, and He will not hold His peace forever.

Jeremy Lallier is a full-time writer working at the Life, Hope & Truth offices in Allen, Texas. He has a degree in information technology, three years’ experience in the electrical field and even spent a few months upfitting police vehicles—but his passion has always been writing (a hobby he has had as long as he can remember). Now he gets to do it full-time for Life, Hope & Truth and loves it. He particularly enjoys writing on Christian living themes—especially exploring what it looks like when God’s Word is applied to day-to-day life. In addition to writing blog posts, he is also the producer of the Life, Hope & Truth Discover video series and regularly writes for Discern magazine.